Courvoisier is hosting an exciting competition for artists of all backgrounds and media, with the opportunity for their work to be displayed in at Gallery 1313 or — get this, on billboards around Toronto! If that’s not exciting, I don’t know what is.

The competition’s theme is renewal, specifically looking at the revolutionary role of art. This can be interpreted two ways: 1) with respect to art’s capacity to revolutionize its own content and form; and/or 2) art’s potential to challenge the status quo. You can read the rest of their manifesto here.

The deadline is July 8th for consideration in the Billboard Showcase category, and July 15 for the Gallery Award category.

One of my favourite bloggers, Sarah Wilson, recently did a post about wholeheartedness. She shared the work of Brené Brown, whose TED talk I had previously watched.

Brown speaks about the necessity of vulnerability in fostering true connections, and true joy. She just exudes such authenticity.

“How do we learn to embrace our vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to recognize that we are enough – that we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy?”

As someone who is definitely a Type A personality, this is something I’ve been working on for some time.

Yes, I really do like it simple and minimalist! I was very pleased with the print quality, as well as the paper thickness. The cards themselves were quite affordable, but the shipping fee in comparison was high…

I’ve also gotten some new print designs done; the new listings will be going up over the next few days.

I printed almost 30 prints for four designs, and it was nice to be able to get the photography session and editing done in one day, instead of two long days for the first nine designs.

Here’s what I was munching on as I did some photo editing for the new listings —

Sweet potato fries sprinkled with seasoned salt, and a blend of garlic and herbs. YUM.

In other INK ! STOMP news, I’ve been approached with some lovely consignment opportunities. It’s exciting as I didn’t expect this to happen so soon. Will keep you updated!

***I am so honoured to be featured today on Miss Malaprop. Mallory runs a wonderful blog, that is all about giving back to the indie handmade community, and there’s even a picture of her kissing a dolphin on her About page. Come on — how can’t you love that?

Thank you again to Mallory!

I am also going to be revamping the look and feel of this blog these few days. I’m not great with coding, so please bear with me if things look funny!